356 MANUAL OF MODERN FARRIERY 



former ill-treatment which he had received from his 

 groom, and become quiet and steady. 



RESTIVENESS WHILE SHOEING. 



When a young horse is first shod, great caution 

 should be used, and gentle means adopted to induce 

 the animal to submit to this novel operation ; and it 

 would be much better to pay the smith a small 

 gratuity for his loss of time in coaxing the horse to 

 submit to it, than to use the gag hurriedly. It must 

 naturally be expected that a young animal will exhibit 

 uneasiness for the first few times he is taken to the 

 smithy. He should on each occasion be led thither 

 by the person who feeds him ; and above all things 

 the smith must not strike him for a fault ; as in 

 most instances horses which are vicious under the 

 operation of shoeing, are rendered so by severe 

 treatment either by the smith or groom. Patience 

 at first shoeing will be well rewarded, and when the 

 animal finds he receives no injury, he will soon 

 become obedient under this necessary operation ; but 

 if severe chastisement has been resorted to, he is 

 certain to be troublesome every time he is shod, 

 having in remembrance his former treatment, and 

 the pain he suffered under the twitch and the gag. 

 The business of the smith is to be mild and yet 

 firm. Shoeing a quiet horse in the presence of a 

 young one has had the effect of teaching him to 

 submit to it. For his own sake, the smith should 

 avoid teaching this evil, as he is in constant danger 

 during the operation ; and the horse is liable to be 

 pricked and lanced in his struggles. Some horses 

 are so vicious that they never can be conquered, and 

 it becomes necessary to cast them every time they 

 are shod, and confined in the trevis. When this is 



